Z5 general feedback

[azzido]

Hi,
I would like to share some of my thoughts after playing with Z5 some time.
Starting from the Pros:

1. Display is really good. I do not know why Sony is not advertising it as it is a huge step forward. I had both Z2 and Z3. Z2 had great colors but too low brightness, Z3 had good brightness but cold pale and colors was a bit washed out. Z5 benefits from both great colors and even higher brightness than Z3! Basically, no matter resolution is the same I really have a feeling this is brand new and very good display + viewing angles are great. It is the best Xperia display ever. It should get more attention in advertising.

2. Camera. I thought it will be similar to Z3, but it is not. Quality is noticably better. Of course it still can be better, for example the speed of taking shots and saving can be improved. Very nice option to adjust brightness and color saturation in Auto mode. Waiting for it in Manual.

3. Design and materials. You have a feeling of something really premium, something new, solid and simply nice. I really like opened usb port and that the camera is really flat, it is now 1 art of the back, covered by the glass
Do not see the reason why Xperia mark is almost not visible in Black (graphite) version.

Cons:

1. Laggy UI. Unfortunately there are some lags here and there within the UI. Considering it is the first build I assume Sony will fix it soon. It is not acceptable in flagship device.

2. Battery life needs to be improved, now it may be hard to achieve 2 days. The display caches the screen to save battery, display is very bright so I hope Sony will improve it to achieve 2 days.

What are your thoughts?
  
 
 

[Uliwooly]

@azzido

That doesn't quite make sense, if it's Superior AUTO it won't allow you to change any setting(s), hence the AUTO

[Uliwooly]

@azzido

Just wondering have you reinstalled the latest update and/or check if there's a new update? 

[azzido]

uliwooly, it does make sense,
I mentioned it is possible to adjust brightness and color volume in Superior Auto mode. 

That is why I would like to see it also in Manual mode  
What for reinstalling the software? 
The camera soft is not broken, is simply does have a new feature I would also like to see in Manual mode.

Sorry I am not getting you  

[azzido]

[azzido]

See it?
These 2 new bars are available in Auto mode, not Manual. 

Uliwooly, do you have Z5 at all? 
As it seems you are not familiar with this new camera UI. 

[absolut33]

Well you included in pro the speed of taking photos although you say that could be improved. I will put these in cons.
Also I didn't forget the serious delay when you try to open the camera

[laxu]

Z5 Compact:

• Color choice is a bit boring. Got the red one, looks thankfully less pink than in the press photos
• Fingerprint sensor and power button location is perfect. Keep this on all your future models!
• Volume buttons on the other hand could be somewhere else
• Notification LED is also perfect, I like that it is a bit smaller and less distracting. I don't need a huge light-up-the-room LED on a phone.
• Could use a bit less bezel. 4.7" display on the next model?
• Back should have more curved edges, would make the phone easier to hold and use one handed.
• Glass back is a bit pointless, just another thing to break.
• Camera is too slow, crashes, seems to have trouble sometimes focusing on the right thing and sometimes there's lag when taking a picture. Pics also don't seem that sharp. Hopefully fixed by a software update.
• The phone gets way too hot! It gets warm after 20 minutes of web browsing on both back and front. My old Galaxy S4 never did that.
• Performance a bit disappointing. Despite the heat I don't feel like it runs anything faster than my old S4 even though benchmarks show a big improvement. In everyday use it just feels the same, websites don't scroll much smoother and some apps even lag more.
• Display was not 100% correctly calibrated (blue tint). Thanks to your white balance option I was able to easily fix it (though the feature should work like "substract color" instead of "add the other colors"! Keep this feature in the future OS versions!

Unfortunately I'm most likely returning mine since it doesn't feel like a significant upgrade from my S4 despite the somewhat high 599 euro price. I really wanted to like the phone and hope that Sony keeps making smaller phones in the future as well. There are very few high end spec smaller phones out there so the market is ripe for the taking.

[azzido]

Thanks laxu for sharing thought.

I would disagree with some of the points, but it is rather a subjective opinion:

1. I meant focusing is fast but saving down pictures takes too much time (loading spinner icon in upper right corner) and therefore you need to wait till you'll be able to take next picture. Maybe I made myself not clear enough. 
2. I agree that phone keeps bit too warm when browsing. Do not experiencing it in UI or other apps (except games of course). 
3. Volume buttons are on the correct side, it just should be higher, closer to power button. Maybe instead of using slower cores for browsing consider the use of faster ones but at lower clock? I recenly played Need for Speed and I notices that clock speed constantly is above 1400MHz. Does it means it is using slower cores or just keep stronger ones at lower clock? Is anyone able to answer? 
4. In opposite, I like this matt glass and do not imagine any other material on the back. Especially plastic definitely would keep me off buying the phone. 
5. Color choice. Hate gold one. As usually picked black/graphite, but this time was seriously thinking about Green. It is not this saturated green, but somehow looks really classy and premium. Sony keep that great Green color as an option in the future!
6. Yes, I agree with performance, especially the stuttering is really disappointing considering you are buing newest high-end device  
7. What calibration did you use? Can you please mention the Green, Red, Blue values? I would like to check the difference. 
8. Screen size. I would like to see the normal Z as 5.5". Compact should be even smaller I guess about 4.2" and Premium / Ultra shoul be about 6.2". Basically the difference in size between versions should be bigger in my opinion.
9. The design as an evolution of OmniBalance feels perfect to me. The shape is Perfect and I had all Z - -> Z1 - -> Z2 - -> Z3. The only one I skipped was Z3+ but we all know why

10. To be honest I do not know what shape Sony can offer to be close in such premium and prestige looking like it is now. 
One is sure, it should avoid the look of Galaxy S3 as it was the worst looking phone ever  
  

[spuddiver]

Hi,

I changed from a Z2 to the Z5. I love the phone but.... The battery life is incredbly bad. I woke up this moring phone fully charged. By 10am after using it only to listen to music for 30minutes and sending a couple of instant messages. I look down and its at 65% within 4 hours. This is so bad compared to my Z2.

Please Sony do somthing this is not acetable im constantly charging this bloddy thing....

Not good for a premium phone, two days is not possible.

Irate long term and loyal customer....but for how much longer i dont know